Gerry Colgan was at the Teachers' Club in Dublin to see Two while Andrew Johnstone saw Rao, RTÉ NSO/Pearce at the NCH and Zenatý, Ardasev at St Stephen's Church in Dublin.
Rao, RTÉ NSO/Pearce
NCH, Dublin
Occasionally, RTÉ's summer lunchtime concert series gives members of the National Symphony Orchestra the chance to appear as soloists. Stepping forward this week was cellist Arun Rao, who played the second of the two concertos by carefree French modernist Darius Milhaud.
Consisting of an ambling first movement, a weird funeral march-cum-passacaglia, and a finale that sets out in martial style but eases off into a rather leisurely promenade, this is a curiously constructed work. But it certainly gives the soloist plenty to do, and thanks to its sparse instrumentation (the violins are silent for much of the time), it allows you to hear him doing it.
Though Rao's intonation began a little unsteadily, it settled as time went on. With a part that afforded him scarcely a moment's rest, his playing was rhythmical and - especially in the cadenzas - well projected.
The concerto made for an effective contrast to other pieces in the programme: Dublin composer Gerard Victory's Cyrano de Bergerac Overture of 1970, the third entr'acte from Schubert's incidental music to Rosamunde, a polka from Smetana's The Bartered Bride, and a short selection from Stravinsky's The Firebird.
With its unashamed mixture of big tunes, cliched chord progressions and touches of modern harmony, Victory's rousing and superbly orchestrated overture would complement the grandest Hollywood epic. Here especially, conductor Colman Pearce obtained a fresh sound from the orchestra.
But it was with the gentle strains of Schubert that Pearce's languid direction and irresistible timing wrought the concert's most seductively phrased moments.
Andrew Johnstone
Zenatý, Ardasev
St Stephen's Church, Dublin
Mozart - Sonata in C K296. Bach - Partita in D minor BWV1004. Beethoven - Spring Sonata.
Czech violinist Ivan Zenatý, the distinguished soloist and teacher at the Dresden Music Academy, made a return visit to Ireland at the invitation of the Association of Music Lovers. His programme was strictly classical.
For Zen, who plays a celebrated Guarneri violin of 1743, tone production is of the essence. The sonorities develop from stable intonation, yet there's no sparing of vibrato. Double stops have an especially complex flavour, while certain melodies suggest the quality of larger instruments - the brooding of a viola, perhaps, or the bloom of a high-reaching cello. Then an accent, and it strikes with incisive abrasion.
All this richness would have suited an opulent piano backing. As it was, accompanist Igor Ardasev made the most of a small grand, its somewhat brittle timbres appropriately recalling the fragile percussion of a classical fortepiano.
In their reading of the music, nothing smacked of levity, all was conferred with stately sobriety. Even the diminutive scherzo from Beethoven's Spring Sonata (the only movement in the concert fully to observe repeat markings) made its point with gravitas. For anyone inclined to place this sonata among Beethoven's lighter inspirations, here was a none-too-vernal account to make them think again.
With Bach's unaccompanied Partita in D minor came heavy downbeats and deliberate phrasing that kept the music's humble dance origins safely out of the picture. And in the monumental Chaconne, Bach the 18th-century musician fully gave way to Bach the timeless philosopher in a tonal soliloquy of the utmost seriousness.
Andrew Johnstone
Two
Teachers' Club, Dublin
The Looking Through Windows Theatre Company already has two excellent productions of strong dramas by prominent authors to its credit. Its third is a relatively low-flying affair by English author Jim Cartwright, and it shows.
It takes place one evening in a pub in the north of England, where we meet the landlords, a married couple. It is where they had first met, where they had their wedding reception and where they had eventually become the owners. As they cope with the incessant demands of the customers, she sneaks in the odd drink and it is clear that all is not well between them.
The strain persists as the focus shifts to individual customers. There is the male flirt, compulsively ogling women and trying the worst chat-up line imaginable ("You're a beauty, you are!"). His long-suffering girlfriend knows that he just wants to get into her handbag for drink money, but when she threatens to leave him, the insecure Lothario breaks down and pops the question. Another woman, by herself, berates her absent invalid husband, whom she must nurse.
So it goes on, with each actor playing seven roles. There is the sadistic husband whose timid wife rebels. Two fat people eat crisps and argue. A boy comes in looking for the father who forgot him. A woman with a diminutive husband upbraids him but eventually displays some affection. And, finally, the gulf between the owners is explained and improbably bridged.
Shane Nestor is excellent and at times brilliant in his roles, with Clodagh Downing more than capable as the female opposition, while Paul Keeley directs with a versatile touch. But the play's the thing, and this one imposes its limitations on the performers.
• Runs until June 24
Gerry Colgan
